The invention relates to an apparatus for receiving and stacking substantially cylindrical objects, especially empty soft-drink bottles, in an appropriate storage container.
Many attempts have been made to design devices which collect empty bottles of a particular size and shape in a container. An additional task of these devices is to make an automatic refund of the bottle deposit made at the time of purchase.
In one such device, described in DT OS 1 947 729, the front of the device has several openings which correspond to the permitted contours of the bottle. Each of these recesses or openings is provided with several pairs of electrical sensor contacts for actuating a coin return mechanism and these contact pairs test the dimensions of the bottle in various places and then actuate the coin return mechanism. The bottles then slide down a ramp into a collecting container. Aside from the difficult insertion of bottles of different size and the expensive and complicated testing mechanism, involving a large number of sensing switches, there is, furthermore, a distinct danger of breaking individual bottles when they impinge on the collection container and, furthermore, the bottles are deposited in a completely random and mixed-up manner. For this reason, the container can hold only relatively few bottles and, in addition, any remaining fluid in the bottles will run out and contaminate the apparatus.
In another device, according to DT OS 1 574 575, the bottles are inserted at the top of the device and fall freely into a container whose bottom is intended to be lowered according to the weight of the bottles in the container. Here, too, there is a distinct possibility of a destruction of the bottles after their free fall which cannot be entirely eliminated and, again, the bottles come to rest in a random and disorderly manner. Furthermore, remaining fluid in the bottles also pours out into the apparatus. Any spilled fluid can be removed only after all of the stored bottles are taken out of the apparatus in a tedious manner.
Other collecting devices, which include transport and conveyor mechanisms by means of chains and sleds, do not solve the problems of a proper and economical storage of empty bottles any better than the already described devices.